City Vision for Upper Central to be talk of the town

A major public consultation on plans to upgrade the traditional heart of Liverpool city centre will launch on Monday, 15 July.

Running from Central Station to Liverpool Science Park and Lime Street to Bold Street, Upper Central is seen as key to the future development of the city’s blossoming Knowledge Quarter (KQ Liverpool) which currently employs 7% of the city’s workforce.

Liverpool City Council wants it to be an international standard gateway site to the £2bn flagship regeneration scheme, and has today approved that a public consultation can begin on a draft Spatial Regeneration Framework (SRF) to help shape the future direction of the 56 acre site.

The 8 week long consultation will be supported by a new website for people to provide feedback online and will feature four public events:

To maximise the opportunities of 2.5million sq.ft of new developments (larger than Liverpool ONE), with potential to create up to 7,000 new jobs.

A new sustainable, walkable and recognisable gateway location within the city, promoting pedestrian movement, increased dwell time and a positive first impression to millions of residents and visitors arriving into the city centre at Lime Street or Central stations.

To ensure high quality public realm that creates a place that is distinctly Liverpudlian and attractive to occupiers, residents and investors.

The focus of the draft SRF will be how Upper Central can become a magnet for digital, tech and creative sectors with the aim of providing three key goals :

1 – To maximise the opportunities of 2.5million sq.ft of new developments (larger than Liverpool ONE), with potential to create up to 7,000 new jobs.

2 – A new sustainable, walkable and recognisable gateway location within the city, promoting pedestrian movement, increased dwell time and a positive first impression to millions of residents and visitors arriving into the city centre at Lime Street or Central stations.

3 – To ensure high quality public realm that creates a place that is distinctly Liverpudlian and attractive to occupiers, residents and investors.

Led by a team of independent planning experts, the draft SRF has looked at how best to redevelop the Lime Street area around the Adelphi Hotel, Central Station and Mount Pleasant whilst dovetailing Liverpool John Moores University’s Copperas Hill site, plans for the Fabric District and various private sector schemes such as Circus Liverpool at the old Lewis’s building.

To achieve this future development the draft Upper Central SRF is focused on eight key themes:

Creation of a true gateway for Liverpool

Improving linkages to the rest of the city centre and pedestrian experience

A mix of uses to create a quality of place and identity

Striving for high quality design, appropriate massing and landmark buildings

Provision of high-quality infrastructure

Holistic view of development context and creating a new city district

Preserving and enhancing heritage assets

Delivery and collaboration

A major aspiration identified in the draft SRF is how to create a super crossing at Ranelagh Place, a new pedestrian experience along Renshaw Street and to promote a new pedestrian route to Lime Street Station from Copperas Hill to allow for improved access to the Fabric District and Paddington Village

Liverpool City Council, which recently acquired Central Station shopping centre and is overseeing public realm proposals for St George’s Plateau, as part of the £45m city centre connectivity scheme, has also set out an ambition to redevelop the Mount Pleasant Car Park area.

The council is also currently developing the £1bn Paddington Village scheme in the heart of the development zone and has identified the need to ensure development continues apace through to the retail district of the city centre.

Once the final version of the SRF is approved by the council’s cabinet, it will be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document to guide all future planning applications in the area and provide developers with detailed information of design and build issues including height, scale and massing of buildings.

Liverpool City Council, which is overseeing an unprecedented £14bn of development activity, has already adopted an SRF for the Ten Streets Creativity District and is looking to adopt further SRFs for the Baltic Triangle, Williamson Square and Mathew Street and is currently consulting on a draft SRF for the Commercial Business District.